Author Ben Kane’s Virtual Visit to Year 9 Classics Classes
“ The Ben Kane talk was really interesting to listen to and I loved it because I learnt so many new things about Roman life that I didn’t already know or had been shown! I think that the bit I enjoyed and found the most interesting was the question and answer section that we had at the end of the talk because we all asked so many different types of questions and for me it was really eye-opening to what really happened back in the Roman era.”Georgia, Year 9
Roman Daily Life
As part of the Creative Writing week, Year 9’s normal Classics lesson took a different turn on Friday 13th November, when the Classics Department treated all students to a virtual talk by best-selling author Ben Kane on Roman daily life. Joining on Teams in the classroom or remotely at home and as far afield as Hong Kong, Year 9 learned a great deal about what life was like two thousand years ago for your average Roman citizen and their slaves. Having written more than a dozen historical novels on the ancient world, Ben has certainly done his research and it was fantastic to see the full flavour of the ancient world in his talk accompanied by slides showing both archaeological evidence and reconstructions to help us imagine what a bustling street or a dark housing blocks would really have been like.
At the end, the questions came thick and fast and in fact, there were too many questions than we had time, so students had the opportunity to reflect on their learning using a questionnaire and to ask further questions which we can discuss in future lessons. Year 9 are to be congratulated on how well they listened and engaged with this experience. Truly, the ancient world is a treasure-trove of interest and sparks endless curiosity, so that no matter how much one studies, researches, writes and learns there is always more to investigate. We were privileged to have Ben talk with us and this was a wonderful treat to start this half of the term.
Here are just nine more comments from the student feedback form:
What did you most enjoy about the talk?
- I enjoyed the pictures he showed us about what he was talking about and the gruesome parts. I also liked the amount of detail he added when describing something.
- Learning about what different slaves there were and their conditions
- I enjoyed learning about the environment that they ate in for example: the food being stored in the counters and how they went to the toilet.
- Learning about the similarities and differences of modern and ancient life
- I really enjoyed learning about how the Romans would have lived and I liked how when he was explaining something he made it visual by showing us lots of pictures.
- I think I most enjoyed how we got an insight into most aspects of a Roman life and we got to see how they lived and what their ‘modern’ technologies were.
- I most enjoyed when he talked about how big funerals were and how people would hire professional mourners.
- I most enjoyed listening to Ben Kane as I felt he was extremely enthusiastic about the talk. It was very interesting to expand my knowledge of the Romans.
- It was a really amazing insight into Roman culture and I am very thankful that the Classics department funded this talk so we could enjoy this opportunity!